Sports Forum held in Romania to help raise standards

By Duncan Mackay

A special forum has been held by the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee (COSR) in ski resort Cheile Gradistei to try to increase standards in the country.

Launched by Alin Petrache, President of the COSR and the captain of Romania's rugby union team, the Sports Forum was designed to give the country's National Federations the opportunity to share best practices.

The event was opened by Sydney 2000 Olympic 5,000 metres champion Gabriela Szabo, now Romania's Minister for Sport.

She told delegates at the Opening Ceremony that she was working on new projects that will help sport in the country.

Romania suffered a disappointing performance at London 2012, where they won only two gold medals among their overall total of nine.

It was their worst performance since Tokyo 1964.

The Romanian Sports Fourm was opened by Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medallist Gabriela Szabo, who is now the country's Sports Minister ©Facebook

Other keynote speakers included International Olympic Committee member Octavian Morariu, Petrache's predecessor as COSR President, as well as numerous other Romanian and foreign experts.

These included Jozef Liba, secretary general of the Slovak Olympic Committee, and Gianluca De Angelis and Steve Scott from the European Olympic Committees (EOC), who gave a report covering the activities of the EOC and also spoke about the importance of autonomy and good governance for the Olympic Movement.

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